San Diego's Valley View Casino & Hotel celebrates a USD 50 M expansion grand opening

San Diego’s five-year casino building culminated yesterday with the unveiling of Valley View Casino & Hotel’s USD 50 million expansion and renovation.

To launch Valley View’s 18-month construction project — it began in March 2018—, casino and tribal officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday morning and grand opening of an additional 43,000 square feet of casino, restaurant and public space, as well as a top-to-bottom remodel of the existing gaming floor, non-smoking casino, high-limit slot area, VIP lounge, buffet and breakfast, lunch and dinner cafe.

“I think it definitely positions us for the higher end — a little more upscale, a little younger,” said Ian Williams, Director of Hotel Operations and Player Development for Valley View, as reported by Pacific San Diego. “It just sets us up to compete with any casino in Las Vegas and any casino in San Diego.”

Valley View’s expansion is the last of eight major development projects among the San Diego region’s 10 casinos since 2014, a period of growth that has made the area one of the most dynamic casino destinations in the country.

In that time, which kicked off with Harrah’s Resort Southern California’s crossing the 1,000-room hotel threshold with a $160 million expansion, an excess of $1.5 billion has been spent on everything from new hotels (Pechanga Resort & Casino, Sycuan Casino Resort, Viejas Casino & Resort) to a new casino itself (Jamul Casino). With nearly every change has come augmented gambling capacity.

Two large-scale projects — Pechanga’s $300 million expansion and Sycuan’s $260 million hotel resort — generated about 1,560 jobs combined, not including construction jobs. Valley View’s $50 million expansion and renovation created 100 positions, with the casino now employing around 950 people.

Valley View, located in Valley Center, is in the core of the North County casino hotbed, with Harrah’s SoCal, Pala Casino Spa & Resort, Casino Pauma and Temecula’s Pechanga all nearby. Valley View has a boutique, 105-room, 100 percent non-smoking, 21-and-over hotel. It also boasts the county’s only casino infinity pool.

Some of the features of its new expansion and renovation include an additional 25,000 square feet of gambling space, with 250 new slot machines, for a total of 2,000, and 11 new table games, doubling the previous number. A new grand entrance leads to the added gaming area — made airy by a high ceiling and natural light coming through a sleek, indoor water wall.

There’s also a new players club, gift promotion and slot tournament area, off the main entrance, and six new restrooms. A renovation of 100,000 square feet of existing casino and restaurant areas include 65,000 square feet on the gaming floor, the non-smoking casino, the high-limit area and VIP lounge, from the ceiling tiles to carpeting, lighting, pillars, signage, new 75-inch TVs, and wider aisles and spacing between slot machine banks throughout the casino.